Foldable cot for infants



Patented June 17, 1952 FOLDABLE COT FIOR INFANTS Alfred Edward Foster, Birmingham, England Application December 23, 1948, Serial No. 66,940 In Great Britain October 7, 1948 2 Claims.

This invention has reference to a foldable cot for infants. It has for its object to provide a cot which can be readily dismantled to achieve advantages in storage and transport and which can be easily collapsed for storing when not required for use.

According to the present invention a cot comprises a rectangular sectional frame and a ilexr ible hammock slung therefrom, the said frame comprising uprights and longitudinal and lateral members detachably mounted on the uprights and adapted to be xed together as a rigid structure, the said frame being collapsible into a parallelogram with the hammock in position when the fixing is released.

Preferably, the said frame is composed mainly of tubes or rods of which upper longitudinal and lateral members have a plug and socket engagement with the upper ends of the uprights,` and similar lower members thread over the uprights up to adjustable abutments, the said upper members being xable to the uprights by screwthread clamping devices.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the upper end of each upright is provided with a screwthreaded shank and a stop collar and each end of the longitudinal and lateral upper members with a cross bored lug to t over said Shanks up to the stop collars. Nuts, threading on said shanks, are adapted to clamp the members to the uprights.

Additional longitudinal and lateral members with cross bored end lugs are adapted to be slidably engaged over said uprights in superposed order and to be retained between the ends thereof by means of india rubber or like elastic collars gripping the uprights so that said collars form abutments above and below the superposed lugs of adjoining longitudinal and lateral members and thus hold them against vertical displacement.

The lower ends of the uprights are provided with detachable india rubber or like feet.

The said nuts may be operated either by hand or by the use of a simple hand tool so that either the frame can be rigidly secured in rectangular form or can be collapsed into the form of a parallelogram.

In the accompanying drawing an embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example and will now be described with reference thereto.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an infants cot assembled for use.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the cot when collapsed.

' Fig. 3 is a topside diagrammatic plan of Fig. 2, the hammock being omitted for the purpose of illustration.

Fig. 4 is an exploded view of an upper end of the sectional frame. Y

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a lower part of'the said frame, and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of Fig. 5.

The cot illustrated comprises four steel uprights I of'uniform length, the upper ends having screwthreaded shanksI 2 and the lower ends being tted with detachable socket type feet 3 made of india rubber or substitute. The said uprights I are interconnected and formed into an oblong sectional frame by means of upper longitudinal andv lateral members 4, 5, and lower longitudinal and lateral members 6, 1, arranged in superposed order..v The ends of all the members 4, 5, 6 and 1 are formed with bored cross lugs 8 forming sleeves which slidably engage over the uprights I up to abutments, the latter for the lower members 6, 'I, being provided by india rubber collars 3 which frictionally grip the exterior of the uprights I and hold the members 6, 1, in the position desired and which can be removed forcibly. The members 6, 1, carry no load and are employed to stiiien the structure. A flexible hammock IIl, of strong textile material, is slung from the upper members 4, 5, for which purpose the hammock has boundary hems II furnishing sleeves I2 through which the upper members 4, 5, are threaded; a miniature removable mattress I3 is provided to maintain the outline of the hammock I0. The sectional structure is made rigid by tightening the nuts I4 on the screwed shank 2 when the lower lugs 8a are pressed against the abutments I5 and the upper lugs 8b are clamped against the lower lugs 8a-see Fig. 4. These nuts can be tightened and loosened by means of a small tommy bar or other shanked tool inserted in the lateral hole I6 provided in the head of each nut. In this position of xing, the cot is quite rigid and capable of accommodating an infant without risk of accident in the ordinary course of use.

When it is desired to stow the cot as a temporary measure, which may be required from time to time, especially where accommodation is restricted as in small flats or in the many instances of overcrowding in homes, it is merely required that the four nuts I4 be slackened to enable the members 4, 5, to be free about the uprights I and of the structure being collapsed folded into a parallelogram as seen in Figs. 2 and 3, the mattress I3 being raised either into a vertical piane in the hammoqk l0, or it can he removed. Apart from the important advantage of stowing above described, the cot has an added benefit that it can be readily dismantled. This is effected simply by removing the nuts I4, disconnecting the bored lugs 8, 8, from the threaded shanks 2, removing the hammock I0 from the upper members 4, 5, disconnecting the feet 3 and collars 9 and then sliding the members 6, 1, towards the base out of engagement with the uprights l. then be placed in a box which provides a ready and simple means for storage and transport which is an important advantage notl only when dealing with such cots in bulk, but for individuals making a journey with an infant where the importance of having cot facilities o n Yarrival cannot be under estimated.

The sectional structure illustrated consists of members 4, 6, measuring in length thirty-ve (35) inches, members 5, 1, eighteen (18) inches and uprights l of thirty-two (32) inches and when dismantled the entire cot can be packed in -a box measuring thirty-six inches .by four inches by three-and-a-half inches ('36" x 4 x 31/2'1). The erection and dismantling of the cot can be carried out by an unskilled person in but a few minutes and the adjustment for the purpose of stowlng ina few seconds.

It will, therefore, be appreciated that I have provided a cot which is simple and-eilective and which can be erected or dismantled and stowed quickly without the exercise of skill or labour and while I have described the preferred embodiment of the invention I desire not to be restricted by that embodiment as various modications mayv be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.

The disconnected components can What I claim is:

l. A cot comprising a rectangular frame including uprights and an upper set and a lower set of longitudinal and lateral members mounted on said uprights, each set of members having sleeved ends slidably engageable with said uprights in superposed order, removable abutments for the lower set of members, said'abutments consisting of elastic collars contracting on said uprights, screw clamping means between the upper ends of the uprights and the said upper set of members for detachably securing the latter to the said uprights and for permitting, when the clamping means is released, of the frame being folded into a parallelogram, and a hammock slung from the upper set of members.

2. A cot according to claim 1 and including a screw-threaded shank at the upper end of each upright and nuts engaging said shanks, each said nut having a Vlateral hole therein into which a hand tool shank can be inserted.

ALFRED EDWARD FOSTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 523,337 EbertI July 24, 1894 617,586 Levy L Jan. 10, 1899 1,233,832 Barbour July 17, 1917 1,412,177 Glaum Apr. 11, 1922 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 724,567 France -1, Jan. 29, 1932 

